


A Dragon's Shadow

by Stariceling



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, here be dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 10:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15313794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: Instead of a puppy, Kuroko ends up adopting a baby dragon.





	A Dragon's Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for bonus round 1:  
> AU where Tetsuya #2 is a baby dragon instead of a puppy but Kuroko adopts him anyway and he becomes the team mascot
> 
> How could I resist Kuroko carrying a baby dragon around?

Kuroko honestly wasn’t doing anything, but even his teammates refused to believe him. The fact that he could walk down the street with a dragon trotting beside him and not get a second glance from anyone was not due to his misdirection. He had thought about how to keep people from overreacting, but he’d never needed to put any of it into practice.

In fact, when they got close to the station and the sidewalk became more crowded he bent to pick Tetsuya Two up. There was a possibility someone would trip over the little dragon otherwise.

Next to him Kagami said, “geh!” and jerked sideways so that he stepped off the sidewalk. Only for one step, however, before he righted himself and was walking normally at Kuroko’s side again. Tetsuya Two still seemed to startle him sometimes, even though he said it wasn’t a problem anymore.

Tetsuya Two made a low chirring noise and rubbed the top of his head against the underside of Kuroko’s chin. Kuroko hoped he wasn’t shedding again already. He’d already gone through one shed with skin lifting away in papery sheets that crumbled into flakes of ash when touched. (Kuroko had ended up researching shedding in pet reptiles at that point, and tried misting Tetsuya Two with a spray bottle. He wasn’t sure it helped but Tetsuya Two had liked the game.)

Also there was the fact that the dragon was definitely getting bigger, but had barely gotten any heavier. What had been a round little dragon the size of a puppy was now almost serpentine, with long limbs and neck and so-far-useless floppy wings. He was still easy to carry, and if anything harder to put down since he could cling more effectively now.

Kagami thumped his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. He looked up to find a slight frown on his friend’s face. He must have looked more troubled than he really was.

“What did Aomine say? He showed up, right?”

Aomine had said before Kuroko’s visit that he didn’t have time to see him and Kuroko had relayed this comment to Kagami, but of course Aomine had showed up.

“He said we’re not allowed to lose to anyone before him.”

Kagami made an offended noise and Tetsuya Two let out a bark that sounded like a laugh.

“Momoi said she couldn’t find any information,” Kuroko added a moment later. That had been his main reason for visiting Touou. He hadn’t been able to find anything about dragons outside of fantasy and myth, but he had been sure Momoi would find something. It was still hard to believe she hadn’t.

It was troublesome not to have access to information about how to go about raising a dragon, but at this point Kuroko was interested in the lack of information itself. Maybe dragons were everywhere and people looked right past them.

“It took some time to even show her Tetsuya Two the first time. Even after he stopped hiding,” he added.

“That makes sense. It’s easier to keep track of that thing when you’re holding it.”

“Is it?”

Kuroko hadn’t known that. He didn’t notice any looks from anyone around him while holding Tetsuya Two.

Tetsuya Two suddenly slithered over his shoulder and climbed into his backpack. Kuroko could feel him curling up and settling until he somehow fit and then the soft vibration of purring. He had stopped wondering about the fact that he was sure his bag had been zipped or how Tetsuya Two still fit in there, just like he had stopped wondering why those claws never ripped his clothes or skin.

Kagami bumped his shoulder again and said, “Come on. I’m starving.”

It was good to hang out with his friend, the conversation halting between topics and then picking up on something else a minute later. Tetsuya Two climbed back out of his bag and into his lap to steal some of his fries, and it all felt like a nice return to normalcy.

(Tetsuya Two would eat Riko’s cooking if offered and stray coins if not stopped. Kuroko was not worried about the fries at this point.)

It wasn’t until he said goodbye to Kagami that his brain veered back to the comment about Tetsuya Two being easier to see with him.

He’d never had trouble seeing Tetsuya Two. Since the moment he’d approached the abandoned box and found a dragon curled up in it instead of a puppy or kitten, it had obviously been a dragon in front of him. His attention had never slipped over it and onto something else. What else could have possibly distracted him?

He had looked into those calm blue eyes and then Tetsuya Two had put his front claws on the edge of the box and made that noise Kuroko could only think of as a bark, and everything had been decided.

Riko had been able to see Tetsuya Two right away as well. He wondered if the rest of the team had seen the dragon before she picked him up and gushed over him. Tetsuya Two did seem to like her in particular. He often sat by her when Kuroko was practicing or on the court and ate the bits of protein bar she gave him under the bench.

Even if no one outside the team could see their mascot, Tetsuya Two enjoyed coming to practice and games, and cheered the team on with chirps and barks.

Kagami still sometimes lost track of Tetsuya Two, even now. Teppei had the same problem, although he didn’t jump. It had been very difficult to introduce Tetsuya Two to Aomine, too. He had a feeling the rest of his past teammates would have the same problem.

It wasn’t quite dark when he made it home, so he took Tetsuya Two out to the grassy lot behind his house. People were always saying it would be paved over and turned into apartments or a parking structure but somehow that never happened. For now the long open stretch was good for playing fetch. Here it didn’t matter if his aim was abysmal.

He wondered if Tetsuya Two would get big enough to do this with a basketball. So far whenever Tetsuya Two played with one of their basketballs, ‘dribbling’ it across the floor, the ball had escaped unscathed, but he suspected that fetch would only work once before he needed a new ball. Tennis balls survived being chewed on.

On one of his more erratic throws he noticed how high Tetsuya Two jumped, wings outstretched. His next toss was more careful. Underhand and not aimed anywhere in particular but in a high, slow arc.

Tetsuya Two exploded out of the tall grass with the setting sun glinting golden on his scales and glowing through the raised fan along his spine. He was definitely flying this time, wings kicking up a plume of dust.

Kuroko didn’t understand how people could not notice such a creature. (For this moment, there was no one but him to notice.)

Tetsuya Two missed the tennis ball completely, landed with an undignified squawk, and galloped after it. When he brought it back that was apparently to show Kuroko his trophy, not to let him throw it again.

The game devolved into chasing Tetsuya Two through the grass, trying to retrieve the ball.

By the time he was home picking grass seeds out of his socks, Kuroko felt much better. Even if there were no instructions on how to raise a dragon, he would figure it out. He would still gather information and plan ahead where he could, but he could adapt as many times as he needed to.

* * *

Tetsuya Two recognized something of himself in Kuroko the first moment he saw him. Kuroko was a human shadow. He was much dimmer and softer around the edges than any dragon could be, but a shadow nonetheless.

Dragons were creatures of absolutes, the way life and death are absolutes. When they died they disappeared so completely that they ripped memories of themselves from human minds. They were drought or rain, light or shadow. They could even be both, although never at the same time.

They were always shadows when they were young and vulnerable, and Tetsuya Two was so young that being a shadow came more naturally than hunting or flying.

Hiding against the dark of another shadow might not be the best survival strategy, but when dragons adopted someone that love was also absolute.

When Kuroko was asleep he was no more of a shadow than any other human. Tetsuya Two never understood how he managed this trick. While Kuroko slept, Tetsuya Two crawled into the flimsy hiding place under blankets and curled up tight against his stomach. There it was easy to listen to the little incidental sounds of his body, the bellows of his lungs and the working of his gut and the throb of his heart. It seemed he couldn’t stop those processes, even awake.

In that comforting space, Tetsuya Two dreamed. He would grow and grow and his scales would harden into incorruptible gold and he would outshine the sun. Instead of shadow he would become light.

Kuroko couldn’t grow so much. Kuroko would still be a shadow, thin and grey and soft around the edges.

He would grow bright enough to become Kuroko’s Light.


End file.
